Minzoni, Giovanni

MINZONI, GIOVANNI. - Priest, b. at Ravenna on July 1, 1885, murdered at Argenta on Aug. 23, 1923. After his ordination (Sept. 19, 1909) he was a chaplain (Feb. 1910) and then (Nov. 3, 1915) archpriest of Argenta, where he devoted himself not only to the work of ministry but also to the formative organization of the young in view of the political, administrative and social struggles, so as to become an object of deep admiration even among his not few local adversaries.

This esteem had ample opportunity to grow in the course of the First World War, in which M. took part from Aug. 1916, piously continuing his customary religious apostolate and also earning a silver medal for valor in the field. In June 1919 he finally returned to his flock and energetically resumed his daily but tireless labor of organization and Catholic-social action precisely when, once the constraints of the Roman Question had been overcome, Catholics were enabled to make their whole beneficent and long-awaited influence felt, through the Partito popolare, on the government and on the fortunes of the country. But the great ascendancy that, in this sense too, the dauntless Fr. M. had been increasingly acquiring among the rural masses could not please the rising Fascist movement: opposed in every way, repeatedly threatened, he had the fault of not swerving and of not allowing himself to be intimidated, so that he was slaughtered by a group of hired assassins.

Paolo Dalla Torre